Bat Fauna (Chiroptera) in an urban environment in the Atlantic Forest, northeastern Brazil

Abstract

In Brazil, only few works have been conducted regarding urban bats and information about richness, composition and ecological interactions in urban areas is little known. Additional studies are important to understand the dynamic of urban bats and offer strategies for their protection. In this paper, we present the results of a bat inventory at the Dois Irmãos campus of UFRPE, Recife, Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil, with analyzes of the composition, richness, diversity, and seasonal variation. From May 2006 to April 2007, we captured 950 bats from 16 species (five families). Frugivores bats accounted for 84.42% of the captures, followed by insectivores, piscivorous, nectarivores, omnivores, and hematophages. The species Artibeus planirostris was the most abundant. There was no significant difference (t = 0.35443, p = 0.7257) on abundance between the seasons of the year. We observed a richer and more diverse bat fauna as one would expect in an urban area, which suggests that the campus is being used for foraging, commuting, or as shelters for these animals.

The effect of urbanization on species composition and trophic guilds of bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) in the Brazilian Savanna

“…Urbanization is one of the main threats to global biodiversity, as this process causes the degradation of natural ecosystems, generated in extremely altered environments (Güneralp and Seto, 2013). The effect of this process on species diversity has been the objective of numerous studies (Grimm et al, 2008;Pacheco et al, 2010;Nunes et al, 2017;Leal et al, 2019;Gili et al, 2020), where they show a negative correlation with richness of amphibians (Hamer and McDonnell, 2008) , arthropods (Vergnes et al, 2014), birds (Blair, 1996) and bats (Oprea et al, 2009). This response can be influenced by the quantity and quality of resources present in the area (Kurta and Teramino, 1992;Nunes et al, 2017;Muruyama et al, 2022).…”